Fair Play. Special Issue: Colin Kaepernick. Is He a Moral Entrepreneur? On the Role Athletes Play in the Public Sphere

Fair Play. Journal of Philosophy, Ethics and Sports Law is an electronic journal devoted to the analysis of sport from the point of view of the philosophy, ethics and the theoretical-legal perspective. Besides the philosophical concern, the journal will accept works coming from the legal field given the obvious connections that arise in many occasions with philosophical issues. The journal is directed mainly to researchers, professional and advanced students. It has a biannual periodicity, and his issues will be published in April and October.

Journal of the Latin Association for the Philosophy of Sport (ALFiD). Indexed in DOAJ and CiteFactor.

Call for papers

At the beginning of a pre-season match between San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers, Colin Kaepernick, quarterback of the team from San Francisco, decided not to stand for the flag during the pre-match event, where both the national anthem and flag are honored by the participants in the athletic event. Kaepernick’s decision was motivated by several cases of police violence against members of the Afro-American community occurred some days before the match. To emphasize and call attention to an unfair situation that outraged him, Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem. To justify his action, he said: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Colin Kaepernick’s act of protest resembles those of other black athletes like Tommy Smith and John Carlos and Mohammed Ali. All of them attempted to raise critical awareness on the racism in American society, but at the same time, other interesting philosophical questions emerged. One such philosophical question is the role athletes play in the public sphere given that they are admired and celebrated public figures. Such a question is at the core of the debate on whether or not athletes are role models. A debate that ties with broader questions like the relationship between politics and sports, and the value and status of sport in society.

Fair Play aims to publish a special issue around Colin Kaepernick’s act of protest that discusses some of the issues mentioned above. In doing so, the editors of such a special issue would like to invite all those who want to participate in the issue to submit a work related to the Kaepernick case. Some of the topics to address are the following: